


Familiar to Unfamiliar but Always Bound

by Akinasky



Series: Sterek Bingo 2018 [2]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alpha and Emissary, Full Shift Werewolves, Gen or Pre-Slash, M/M, Pre-Relationship, Spark Stiles Stilinski, Witch Stiles Stilinski, Witch and Familiar, Wolf Derek Hale, sbmagicwrong, sbwitchfamiliar, sterekbingo2018
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-03
Updated: 2018-05-03
Packaged: 2019-05-01 13:40:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,075
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14521779
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Akinasky/pseuds/Akinasky
Summary: Stiles is sent to find the Nemeton and instead he finds a big black wolf, working under the assumption that the wolf is his Familiar, Stiles chooses to try a little magic.And it goes differently than he ever imagined.





	Familiar to Unfamiliar but Always Bound

** Familiar to Unfamiliar but Always Bound **

**Sterek Bingo**

 

“You want me to go out into the Preserve and find a stupid tree stump and call this training! Fine! It’s stupid and asinine and I could be hurling fire balls or something like the Sorcerer’s Apprentice! I would go find Nicholas Cage to train me but he made his Apprentice do stupid stuff too so there you go!” Stiles ranted into the silence of the forest he was clumping along. The ground was damp for all the rain lately and his Converse were getting soaked and he was pretty sure this was a joke, a gag that Deaton cooked up with Scott to make fun of him.

If it was, Stiles was going to lock Scott up in a mountain ash circle and he was going to hang Deaton from his thumbs. Well no he wouldn’t but the thought was tempting. There was definitely a possibility of pranks in their future if this was just to screw with him.

It was hard to imagine that it had only been a year since Scott was bit by some random alpha coming through Beacon Hills and turned into a werewolf. When they discovered that Deaton knew about the world of the supernatural, Stiles took it upon himself to learn at the knee of the more knowledgeable (he will _not_ call Deaton ‘Master’ it’s a point of contention between them). Deaton learned that Stiles was capable of magic when he accidently trapped them all in the school with the werewolf where Scott was getting clobbered and bloodied mostly because he was kind of a wimp before being turned and as a nascent werewolf he wasn’t much better.

Somehow Stiles destroyed the alpha and absorbed the magic in the werewolf without becoming one himself, an interesting mystery that Deaton still scratched his head about frequently. Like he literally will scratch his head and look off in the distance while trying to understand Stiles.

Since he received the burst in power, Deaton was uncertain that Stiles could control his magic and said he needed to be trained. And now a year later, he was being sent into the woods to find a huge stump.

This huge stump was supposedly very important and powerful and yet Deaton didn’t know where it was. Stupid!

Stiles didn’t want to be out here in the forest all night, it was his first week out of school between junior and senior year and he had a lot of goofing off planned for the summer. Not that Deaton cared about what Stiles wanted. Stupid Emissary!

Stiles kept grumbling and wandering around in the muted light of the forest for another forty minutes when he heard the low growling sound and looked around. He held one of his hands out, in case he had to let loose one of his shielding spells, they would have been better if he could tattoo the spells into his skin but he was still underage and his dad didn’t know anything about magic training and werewolves and as of right now, Stiles was going to keep it that way. Which of course meant no tattoos, even magical ones for another year.

Stiles wished he had a gun, or his bat.

The growl happened again, he turned again searching the area around him for another minute before he closed his eyes and asked for the ability to see into the less than stellar lighting and discover the threat. He did as Deaton taught him, asking the Goddess for wisdom and sight. He didn’t really know if he believed in the Goddess or anything, but it made for a good focal point.

Stiles opened his eyes and looked around again, this time seeing into the distance with the eyes of some nocturnal creature. He turned around in a circle, looking for movement in the trees then he saw it. Just an outline of a creature. It was large, probably about waist high at the withers and it had light blue eyes and a snout. It was a dog, no a wolf.

“No wolves in California,” he muttered to himself.

The creature growled then turned with a bark and headed off into the forest. The direction Stiles had been heading. Stiles frowned and wondered if he was stupid as he moved to follow the large animal. It loped ahead of him, looking back every once in a while, and despite the dark Stiles was able to keep an eye on the shape in front of him.

Maybe if he got mauled in the forest, he could be a werewolf after all.

It only took another five minutes for the creature to get to where it was going and Stiles looked into the clearing to see the big stump, about six feet across and the creature jumped up on top while Stiles stared in confusion.

If this was the stump that Deaton wanted him to find, was it cheating if he followed a beast to it? And what was the creature doing anyway?

Stiles walked a couple of feet closer to the stump and the beast, which looked more like a wolf than anything else took a couple steps back until it smoothly backed off down and away from the stump so Stiles walked over and pressed a hand to the cool and moist wood. He figured it would be fractured and tough, hard and splintering to the touch. Stiles closed his eyes and focused on the stump but felt nothing and sighed.

“Fucking pranked me, motherfucker!” Stiles growled and looked around but didn’t see the creature as he slumped to sit against the stump. He leaned his head back on the stump and opened his mind to it and the surrounding area. Maybe he was just being closed-minded. Deaton says things like that can cause a problem for an Emissary, especially when will power and desire was such a large part of the craft.

Sounded like a lot of hoo-ha to Stiles most of the time but he sought out the stump in his mind and there was a small echo. Stiles frowned as he kept seeking the echo, listening and feeling it out in the darkness of his mind and found a seed of something.

There was something here.

 _‘You came?’_ something said in Stiles’s mind and he sat up and looked around. He turned around and looked up to stare straight into the shimmering blue gaze of the big black wolf and he laughed because he was wearing his signature red hoody and the big bad wolf was going to eat Little Red, undoubtedly.

 _‘You came here, you listened.’_ The same voice said in Stiles’s mind and he wanted to look around, to see where it was coming from but the wolf was still staring at him.

“Who’s there?” he husked, watching as the wolf’s head cocked to the side in dog-like curiosity.

The wolf sat down on the stump and stared at Stiles, _‘I thought you knew. You came here. I have been waiting for you.’_

“For me?” Stiles asked, glancing to both sides and wondering if he was really going insane or did he think the wolf-creature was speaking to him. He pointed to the wolf, “Are you talking to me, in my head?”

The wolf sneezed humorously, _‘Yes, as I mentioned. I have been waiting for someone to come here. To find me. To help me. I thought you were here for me.’_

“Help you what?” Stiles asked, turning around completely to continue this conversation with a wolf more comfortably.

_‘Return to life.’_

Stiles didn’t know what to respond with so he just nodded and leaned against the stump again, wondering what the hell he was supposed to do now that he was here. The wolf laid down on the stump for a little while and waited, Stiles kept his eyes closed and continued to breathe and imagine the power in the stump reaching out to him.

“So?” Stiles asked the wolf as he started fidgeting, “Do you live around here?”

The wolf made this noise, like it was hacking up a hairball and Stiles turned around and glared at the animal.

“Don’t you dare vomit on me.”

_‘I will not vomit if you don’t ask stupid questions.’_

“Well you must live somewhere,” Stiles shrugged.

The wolf took a deep breath, heaving a sigh that sounded so much more emotional than it had any right to be. _‘I stay in a nearby cave.’_

Stiles shrugged since it was an answer, “I would offer you a place to stay if it wasn’t for the fact that there is no way my dad is letting me bring home a wolf.”

With that the wolf huffed and ran off, leaving Stiles alone on the stump staring after the talking animal in confusion.

“Was it something I said?” Stiles called out then got up and headed back home. He would call Deaton tomorrow and tell him about his experience in the woods.

 

 

Stiles didn’t _see_ the wolf again for another two weeks after that, he went about his business and his training didn’t send him to the big tree in the Preserve since Deaton had clearly had his laugh about that but Stiles felt like he was being followed every day when he was in town. He didn’t know if it was some spidey sense telling him something or just going crazy after starting the journey by talking to a wolf in the forest on a tree stump that was supposed to be some sort of power source (Stiles still wasn’t sure Deaton was serious about that).

Stiles decided on the next Saturday after his shift at the Sheriff’s station where his dad liked to turn him into a gofer for the other deputies in the office to keep him out of trouble, to go into the Preserve and see if he actually saw a wolf at all.

If Stiles saw the wolf again, he would talk to Deaton about it because he didn’t want his teacher to think he was just fucking with him for sending him out in the first place. This search was as much for Deaton as it was for Stiles, really. Stiles had every intention of taking a picture of the wolf if it didn’t get him eaten.

He headed in the direction of the stump and it didn’t take him very long to get there despite the countless times he tripped on the undergrowth and maybe a couple times where he just tripped on nothing. No one was here to laugh at him so he didn’t need to keep track, Stiles just needed to keep himself on his feet and moving.

When he arrived in the clearing close to the stump Stiles looked around, hoping to see the wolf right off so he didn’t have to pull out his magic homework and start working on it. The messenger bag sure hadn’t helped the trek out here.

Stiles sat down on the edge of the stump and looked around, took a deep breath and spoke, “Look I know this is weird but if you’re real will you come out? I just want to know if I imagined the whole thing?”

Nothing happened immediately so Stiles sighed and pulled out the book he was studying at the moment and delved into the text. Not literally obviously but it did feel like a part of his mind and body attuned to the stump, trying to find that miniscule magic connection he’d felt last time.

He didn’t know how much time had passed when he felt something come up behind him. Stiles jerked around, startling at the sight of the black wolf standing on the stump.

“Whoa!” Stiles shrieked and fell off the stump. He hurried back up to his knees and looked at the large creature again and couldn’t believe how big it was the first time Stiles seen it. It was _huge!_

_‘You have returned? You came here for me?’_

Stiles nodded, “Yes, I didn’t know afterwards if I just made the whole thing up because there aren’t any wolves in California and you’re, you know, _talking to me in my mind!_ All of that seemed very unreal after the fact.”

The wolf snorted, _‘I’m not a wolf.’_

“Yeah okay,” Stiles rolled his eyes. Has this thing looked in the mirror recently? Well no probably not since its living in the woods and it’s a wolf. Maybe its confused? “What’s your name? Do you have a name?”

The wolf-who-doesn’t-think-its-a-wolf huffed then shook like he was trying to get something off his coat. _‘I don’t really remember, its been too long. I know it starts with a ‘D’.’_

Stiles frowned, “Douglas?”

The Not!Wolf scoffed.

Stiles rolled his eyes and started listing names starting with ‘D’, “Let’s see… Is it David? Daniel? Dylan? Dominic? Diego? Damien? Drake? Derek? Dakota? I don’t know man, this could take a while.”

_‘I wish I could remember but I do not.’_

“How about if I call you D for now?”

The Not!Wolf didn’t seem to have anything to say about that so Stiles figured he wasn’t arguing.

“Why do you keep showing up here at the stump?”

_‘It’s the only place you can hear my words.’_

Stiles frowned, “How do you know that?”

D looked down and scratched at the trunk, _‘I have seen you around. I tried to speak into your mind. And you never heard me.’_

Well that answered the whole ‘I think I’m being followed’ thing that Stiles had been feeling. “Oh okay, I don’t know what you want from me here D. I can’t hear you anywhere but here on the stump and you haven’t really been all that forthcoming when we are here.”

_‘I don’t know much about this but I must go. I am nearby so when you come here, just call for me. I will come.’_

Stiles watched as D wandered off and he sighed. He got his book and headed out of the forest again and walked to his jeep. He drove out to the Veterinarian clinic and walked through the front door to see Scott smiling as he walked around the counter to hug Stiles.

“My bro!” Stiles said.

“Hey, you here to see little ole me or Deaton?”

Stiles sighed in faux morose, “Here to see the slave driver for now but you and me for a Halo game day tomorrow?”

Scott nodded and slapped Stiles in the shoulder before he took off to find Deaton. When Scott pointed him back to Deaton’s office, Stiles rushed back and shoved the door closed, “I saw a wolf out in the Preserve.”

“No wolves in California,” Deaton said immediately.

“Well clearly that’s not true, you know with the alpha and all.”

“Werewolves live in California, not the best options. Personally, I would go to Alaska if I was a werewolf but that’s beside the point. Wolves don’t live in California. You have been learning in the supernatural far too long to make such a mistake Stiles. Do we need to revisit the Bestiary again?”

Stiles rolled his eyes at the man, “I’m saying that I saw a wolf. I didn’t see a werewolf, I saw a wolf. Twice. It talked to me on the stump you sent me to a couple weeks ago.”

“And you didn’t tell me?” Deaton asked with a frown as he crossed his arms and looked mulish.

“I was seeing and talking to a wolf, honestly I thought I was seeing things. Then I saw him again today.”

“You went to the Nemeton?”

“The stump, yeah.”

Deaton sighed, “Stiles, it’s called the Nemeton. It is dormant at the moment but it’s still important.”

“It’s a stump and also not the important part of the conversation right now. There was a talking wolf on the stump.”

“You are delightfully frustrating as a student,” Deaton responded.

“Yeah, if you had ever spoken to any of my teachers or my father, you would know that’s just part of the deal,” Stiles snorted and waved his arms at Deaton. “Seriously, talking wolf, what’s up with that?”

Deaton shrugged, “It might be your familiar, a creature designed by nature and magic to help you control and amplify your abilities.”

Stiles had read a lot about familiars though he’d never imagined that he would have one and especially not something like D. He’d never imagined it would be a talking wolf. “Also, he insisted that he’s not a wolf. What’s with that?”

Deaton tilted his head in contemplation, “Well it could very well mean that he is one of the rare familiars that are capable of taking different forms so even though he is appearing as a wolf, it is not his true form. You shall have to get to know him and the abilities he has but if this wolf creature is your familiar, I believe the best course of action would be to start doing spells and incantations with him close by to see if it helps. Looks like you are going to be spending more time with the ‘stump’ as you call it.”

Stiles groaned and thumped his head on the table to the sound of Deaton chuckling and groaned out, “This sucks!”

 

 

Stiles started going to the stump two or three times a week, D was laconic like always so Stiles chattered at him and talked to the stump, trying to suss out the supposed importance that Deaton like to espouse. They got used to each other and sometimes when Stiles wanted to just be there for D, he would run in the woods and let the not!wolf catch him. D never grabbed him hard enough to break skin and the chase sessions always seemed to be exactly what they both needed.

As time limped along under the watchful eye of Deaton and D and the fooling around with Scott, Stiles decided that the first incantation he wanted to try with D was to reveal the familiar’s true form. Maybe D would be a little less conspicuous and Stiles could take him home, invite the not!wolf into the rest of his life. They could try and learn how to speak without the stump ( _it’s called a Nemeton Stiles)_ for a translator. It’s a completely selfish motive but Stiles figured that Derek would be pleased to retake his original form since he seemed to be equally despondent about his body despite the beauty of it and fearful that he would never retake his other form. Derek seemed to hate the stump as well, frustrated that they couldn’t talk when away from the roots of the tree so here’s hoping releasing Derek from the wolf’s form would release them both from the dependency on the stump they currently had.

Stiles convince D to let them sit on the stump for this, Derek laying on his side and trustingly showing his belly and Stiles’s hands placed respectfully on his upper rear leg and the joint of his shoulder while he attempted the incantation. It was a simple spell but it had to be spoken in Latin which wasn’t Stiles’s strong suit. It read ‘Come back to yourself, to the original body you were born to. That you belong to’.

Stiles started speaking the words over and over again, focusing on the stump’s latent power and the easy breathing of D’s body under his hands and was so focused on the sudden blast of power that he didn’t feel the change for several minutes. He didn’t hear the bones reshaping even though they were loud grinding and stretching sounds, painful popping sounds and D made no move to leave or disconnect.

“Stiles?” a voice called and he jumped away from the stump and fell back onto the ground with an ‘oomph’.

“Fuck, I gotta stop doing that!” he groaned then sat up and looked behind him for the source of the voice but found nothing until he looked at the stump where D had been and now there was a man. A tall, dark-haired naked man.

A trembling man. Who was staring at his own hands, then patting himself down.

Stiles’s jaw dropped, “D?” he asked still uncertain how this happened. Wouldn’t D have told him that he was really a man?

The man looked over and flashed red eyes that were all too recognizable. Stiles jerked backwards, thinking of the alpha in the school and watching those red eyes as they faded into nothing and left Stiles with power that wasn’t his. Remembered walking over to Scott’s battered body, knowing that the alpha had been only hits from killing Stiles’s best friend and here he was – faced off with another alpha. Who couldn’t be D, the eyes were all wrong. D had light blue eyes, shinning and supernatural but not red! Not an alpha!

“Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Don’t kill me please! What did you do with D?”

The alpha sat up and turned towards Stiles as he continued scooching along the ground and looked around, “Stiles?” he questioned but it didn’t seem like he was asking who Stiles was but what was going on.

“D?” Stiles asked again.

The man nodded blearily, “I’m not going to kill you. You returned me to my human form. Thank you!”

“You’re an alpha?” Stiles choked out, “Please don’t kill my best friend! I know he can be a massive pain in the ass but he’s not going to come for your power but he won’t kill for you either!”

D stared at him in surprise, “I’m not an alpha. I’m a beta, my name is Derek Hale. I was trapped in my wolf form when I was fifteen years old after my family was murdered. I know time has passed but I don’t know how much. I don’t know my own body but I know goddamn well that I am not an alpha.”

“You have red eyes!” Stiles snapped.

D—or Derek apparently stared at him in confusion, “Did you kill an alpha or something?”

Stiles scooched back another step, “Yes. He was going to kill my best friend. I don’t know how I did it. I will kill you if you try. I – I did it once, I can do it again,” Stiles stammered as he got up and held up his hands in a pretty pathetic display of self-defense.

Derek shook his head and frowned with his epic eyebrows and seriously, they need to figure out a clothing thing for this guy because Stiles was suddenly reminded that he _really_ liked guys. And everything about this particular guy was exactly what Stiles liked. He’d been out and proud for a year after a fling with Danny that ended in friendship over a year ago. But he also needed to remember that this beautiful man had the ability to rip him apart.

“I’m not going to kill you, I think you were holding the alpha’s power inside you and when you brought me back, the power transferred to me. I wasn’t an alpha before and I have no intention of hurting you so seriously put your arms down. You look ridiculous.”

Stiles did so, taking a tentative step forward then another, holding his hand out and touching D’s shoulder and like a snap something emerged between them. It was a bond, simple as that.

And Stiles. Saw. Everything.

He saw Kate Argent (the name easily given to him through Derek’s memories) flirting with fifteen-year-old Derek, taking advantage of his completely need to be loved and cared for. He saw her turn on him, making Derek the disaster in their relationship and taking disgusting joy in destroying something beautiful. He saw the fire, and Stiles saw the moment when Kate smiled at Derek from the woods. He’d seen her there that night and when he reared his head back and howled, he transformed into a wolf in his grief and lost himself in the instinctual need to survive.

In a moment of clarity, Stiles opened his memories to Derek, just in case the werewolf wasn’t seeing them already. The bond went both ways but he believed that if anyone had earned the right to an open channel both ways, it was Derek Hale.

Stiles pulled away when the visions petered away and he whispered, “Oh god, I remember your sister in the Sheriff’s station. After the fire. So many deaths and we didn’t know anything about it. But you’re here Derek, you’re alive!”

Stiles looked down and watched as those green eyes narrowed harshly, seeing something that wasn’t visible to Stiles and jerked away, and scuttling across the stump and away from Stiles. “You killed my uncle! That’s the alpha that you killed!”

Stiles shook his head, “No Derek! I didn’t know. How could I have known that? He was trying to kill my best friend. I didn’t even want to kill him, please don’t run!”

But he was already gone, the last sight of a naked bum that would have undoubtedly made a wonderful addition to Stiles’s spank bank if it wasn’t for the shit storm that was just revealed.

Stiles turned back towards town and his jeep, not looking forward to updating Deaton and Scott on this turn of events.

 

 

Stiles refused to see Deaton until several days after the spell worked or didn’t, depending on who he asked. He lost his ‘familiar’ and now they had an alpha werewolf who had every reason to hate Stiles and he was bound to him. That all sounded like a failure but he’d also released Derek from a trap he’d been in for years. Wasn’t that something that should have been celebrated?

He went to the clinic and followed Deaton into the office and pulled Scott in behind him much to Deaton’s surprise. They had very strict boundaries most days about the training that Deaton did with Stiles, it wasn’t Scott’s business but this was.

“Well the incantation worked, I released D to his true form. Funny story though; he’s a werewolf that got stuck in his wolf form after watching his family burned to death. And he’s an alpha now.”

Deaton frowned, “Are you talking about Derek Hale? He died in the fire, he has a death certificate. The only survivors were Peter Hale, Laura Hale and Cora Hale.”

Stiles held up his hands then let them flop down to his sides again, “He introduced himself as Derek Hale. And Peter died apparently, because he was the alpha that I killed. I didn’t know. I’d never seen any of the Hales besides Derek and Laura. Cora was too young, I think she may ended up in foster care actually because Laura was too young to take her. I think they were separated. I remember fifteen-year-old Derek but this Derek has aged. He’s older and I didn’t have enough time to see him as Derek that I had seen back then. And I saw his memories. It’s Derek.”

“Oh god,” Deaton responded and if it wasn’t for the shit situation he might be pleased that he actually stumped the man.

“He told me I killed his uncle, then he ran off. I don’t know where he is now but I figured you should know. We have a traumatized alpha in town with every reason to gut me and possibly Scott.”

“Wut?” Scott responded stupidly.

Stiles rolled his eyes, “I don’t know what he’s going to do but also, one last thing. You can’t kill him.”

“Why the hell not?” Scott snarled, flashing his gold eyes.

“We bonded, I think I’m his Emissary.”

“So?” Scott asked, crossing his arms.

Stiles looked at Deaton and waited for the other man to answer, “When an alpha and an Emissary first bond, they share emotions and wounds. It doesn’t last because after a certain amount of time the bond changes and they both accept it. This is like being handcuffed together – as a slightly poor representation, what happens to one happens to both. The theory that Emissaries and Alphas have been able to agree on is that it is one of the best ways to make sure that these to personalities will learn to lean into each other, and the pack will protect them. Emissaries are human, sparks, but they rarely have the kind of power to protect themselves so this ‘engagement’ for lack of a better term teaches the alpha to respect the pain and agony the Emissary will go through as a human who runs with wolves and it will teach the Emissary that even an alpha can be hurt so respect the relationship and each other.”

“Wow,” Stiles rolled his eyes, “Normally you do better in ‘lecture mode’ Professor Dumbledore.”

Deaton sighed, looking annoyed and like he really wanted to strangle Stiles but then turned back to Scott. “You understand then, if you kill this alpha then you kill your best friend?”

Scott nodded and looked at Stiles, “Are you going back out there?”

Stiles shrugged, “I have to. He’s hurting and I need to help him. I don’t want to die but he’s been hurt.” Stiles turned back to Deaton, “We need to find his sisters. They might get through to him better than anyone else.”

Deaton nodded, “You can’t hide the rest of it from your father anymore Stiles. If he takes a shot at Derek, it could kill you.”

Stiles hadn’t even considered that, slapping a hand over his eyes and nodded. “I guess I should have that conversation sooner rather than later just in case Derek does something stupid.”

His dad was on shift until six that evening so Stiles left the clinic and headed out for the Preserve and headed for the stump. When he got there Stiles took a deep breath and spoke thinking that talking to the wind next to some mystical stump sounded like it belonged in a crazy person’s story but here he was, “Derek, I just want to talk. Please let me help you. Just let me explain that night.”

Unsurprisingly there was no response, Stiles waited for a half an hour before he squared his shoulders, closed his eyes and focused on the wavering line between him and Derek then started walking. He didn’t know where he was going and Scott and Deaton didn’t know he’d come back out here and he was heading off to meet an alpha werewolf that was related to the man he’d killed on accident, in self-defense.

“Not a banner day in the Stilinksi house,” Stiles muttered out loud and continued along a slightly overgrown pathway that was large enough to be a driveway and it took another ten minutes to realize where he was going.

The remains of the Hale house.

Derek went home.

When Stiles arrived in the clearly and looked at the destruction there, he leaned down and pressed a hand into the earth and heard the screams of Derek’s family. He pulled away sharply and looked around

“Why would you come back here? This is horrifying, I was with you in your memories. Come on Derek, lets get you out of here.”

Stiles couldn’t help the feeling he had to save Derek. He was Stiles’s alpha and that was a powerful thing. Stiles brought Derek back to his human form only to invite him back into the nightmare of a life he’d seemingly forgot. But Stiles knew he didn’t have to stay there in the misery.

“Go away Stiles,” Derek snarled from just inside the house.

“I can’t man, I don’t want you to kill me here but can’t you feel it? We bonded back there when I touched you. I can help you get past this.”

“I don’t want to kill you, stop saying that!” Derek roared as he came around the doorframe and Stiles took a deep breath even as his heart started rabbiting in his chest. Derek was magnificent. Derek was pissed, shifted into his alpha form with bleeding red eyes and long side burns and sharp—very sharp teeth.

He’d found clothes somewhere, though that was a gracious description since it looked like he swiped some shorts and a t-shirt off someone’s clothesline. The shorts clung to his defined hipbones and the t-shirt was several sizes to small, leaving about three inches of bare skin between the two articles of clothing. They were covered in muck like he’d been rolling around in a puddle or something.

Stiles held his hands out, palm up and in supplication like he knew to do with a cornered and angry werewolf. “I didn’t mean to upset you, I didn’t know it was your Uncle Peter that night. I just figured you would actually have reason to kill me after that but you have to know that I never met your family. All I knew that night was he was trying to kill my best friend and I don’t regret saving Scott but I am sad that you were hurt by it. Derek, I didn’t know you were going to see that in there and know the alpha. I can’t say how sorry I am to have caused another loss for you.”

Derek’s breathing was still harsh and fast, his chest rising and falling quickly as he walked over to Stiles. He used every speck of self-control to not move as Derek came at Stiles. Then the alpha was pressing against his chest, pushing his nose into Stiles’s neck and snuffling. “You’re not lying. I remember how to know that,” Derek voice was muffled against Stiles’s neck but he nodded anyway.

“You’ll get it all back Derek, I promise. I’ll help you. I promised you before and I will promise you again.”

Derek shook his head, “Not going to get everything back, not my family. They’re gone because of me!” And with that, Derek turned and rushed back inside the Hale house and left Stiles standing bereft and cold without Derek’s body heat pressed up close.

Well he wasn’t dead so Stiles was going to call that a win, he turned to walk back out of the Preserve. Maybe if they could find Laura and Cora, having his sisters back would help Derek realize that he hadn’t lost everyone. Stiles didn’t think he had a right to tell Derek to leave the forest if he needed to be out here a little longer.

Stiles would return again. For now, he went home and waited for his dad to get home so he could tell him how Scott was a werewolf and he was bonded to one. A werewolf that was presumed dead because he’d been stuck in the body of a wolf for seven plus years.

It wasn’t the greatest father-son conversation but it wasn’t the worst either. After being told he was lucky the Sheriff wasn’t handcuffing Stiles to a radiator like he’d done to Scott back in the day after he’d first been turned. His dad demanded that there would be no more lies and keeping secrets, Stiles then told his dad that he liked guys as much as he liked girls and his dad followed that up with, “And? You think I didn’t already know that?” which was a surprise to Stiles.

His dad knew everything and he wasn’t going to try and keep him away from Derek. All in all, it was a good talk despite the fact that his punishment was not being able to stop his dad from eating curly fries and cheeseburgers for the next three weeks (the bastard!).

 

 

Stiles did return, going back to the burned-out Hale house two or three times a week, like he did with the stump. Now Stiles took books with him, bestsellers from the time that Derek wasn’t human, and books on magic and werewolves and just read to Derek who frequently sat on the other side of the open doorway and just listened.

It wasn’t much different to how it was before when Derek was a wolf.

About a week after Derek was returned to human form, Stiles was sitting on the porch and dropped the book to his knee. “You told me you weren’t a wolf, when you were in the other form. Did you mean you were a werewolf?”

Surprisingly Derek answered, “Yes but I didn’t know at the time. I’d been a wolf for so long, I’d been stuck in that instinctual place for so many years that I didn’t know what I was anymore. Only that I wasn’t just a wolf.”

“I thought you were my familiar,” Stiles said and shook his head. “I was so stupid.”

“No,” Derek crooned, the kindest tone Stiles had heard in days from the alpha. “You made an educated guess based on the knowledge at hand. It was because of you that I am back in my human form. I said thank you then and I meant it. I don’t really care why you were doing it, only that you did.”

Stiles turned around and leaned against the post and saw Derek’s shoulder just inside the door. He wanted to reach out, to touch Derek and give him some physical comfort. Stiles had learned a lot about werewolves since Scott was turned and an alpha needed just as much physical comfort as betas, more sometimes because they get the support and love from their pack. Derek hadn’t had any comfort, any loving touches for years. But Stiles didn’t feel like he was allowed to touch or comfort despite the fact that he could still feel the bond in the back of his mind. It was aching to be completed, Stiles’s magic was becoming erratic but none of that was on Derek. Deaton was doing what he could to support Stiles at the moment but the vet was starting to look concerned and for a guy who went through everything without much concern, it was bad.

“Hey Derek, do you know about Alpha and Emissary bonds?”

Derek grunted and Stiles watched him shake his head, “My mom was really close mouthed about it.”

“Look, I don’t want to rush you but we bonded to each other that first day. I know all this is fucked but the Witch/Familiar thing isn’t far off. We need each other, Emissaries’ have a lot of unstable magic, Deaton thinks that’s the reason I was able to kill the alpha. It wasn’t because I was powerful but I had access to unstable magic. It answered the call. And now, the door is open so to speak and I’m drowning in it. I need to solidify the bond or break it. And soon.”

Derek shrugged again and Stiles sighed, pushing up and stepping away from the porch. Derek turned and watched him, “Are you going?” he asked as Stiles grabbed his book bag and dropped it on his shoulder.

“Yes, Derek. I am. I am going to talk to Deaton about breaking the bond. I can’t live like this. Literally!” he gestured madly though his voice remained neutral. “I’m glad your free again but this, living like this. I just can’t do it. And I don’t want to force you to do anything you don’t want to do. So, bye.”

Stiles left Derek sitting inside the door, not moving to follow or shout and Stiles couldn’t handle the absolute _lack_ that was coming from the nascent bond. His magic gurgled and whined, sparking at his fingertips and spreading fire throughout his body as Stiles kept walking.

They had to do something about this, and fast.

Stiles was just pulling the keys out for his jeep when the phone in his pocket jingled. He tugged it out, seeing that it was Deaton and answered, “Hey Doc, I was just leaving the Hale house. No such luck with Derek sadly.”

“Well, I may have had some luck. Can you stop by the clinic?”

Stiles nodded, “Yeah. On my way.” He threw his bag into the other chair with a grunt and started the jeep with a sputtering growl before he drove the easy route to the veterinarian clinic. He walked into the clinic.

“Stiles, come see!” Scott grabbed his arm and dragged Stiles into one of the larger exam rooms to see two young women, one around Derek’s age and one younger. Scott left the room, the coward, closing the door on the three of them.

“You’re Laura and Cora Hale, aren’t you?” Stiles asked suddenly and they glared at him.

“My name is Cora Whitmore, I was adopted by the Whitmore family when my family died. I don’t know what I’m doing here but seriously. I should go.”

“She’s my sister but they took her away when everyone died. They wouldn’t let me stay with her, the Whitmore family didn’t want some traumatized teenager about to become an adult. I stayed in contact when I could,” Laura said in an almost whisper. “What are we doing here?”

Stiles took a deep breath, “I found your brother Derek.”

They stared at him in shock though Laura came out of it first to say, “No. He was gone. He died in the fire!” her eyes flashing gold. Cora’s eyes flashed gold as well. Stiles was surprised at the complete lack of control in them both except for the news he was bringing to them.

“I found him in the woods, he was stuck in his wolf form. I freed him but now he’s just living in the woods, at the remains of your house. He won’t come to town, he won’t even find clothes that fit him correctly. I don’t know what to do but there is more when you’re ready.”

Cora collapsed to the ground, her legs just seemed to stop working all of a sudden and she fell. Laura slid easily to her knees next to the younger Hale sister, last name notwithstanding. “He’s alive?” Laura asked, wiping at the tears gathering in her eyes.

Stiles nodded, “I could take you out there but honestly, I shouldn’t. I need to figure out how to break the bond between us.”

Laura’s gaze snapped to Stiles, “Bond?”

“That would be the other stuff we need to talk about. Are you ready for that?”

“I don’t think we are ever going to be ready for anything that you’re about to say but I don’t think we have a choice,” Laura stated. She stood up, leaving a hand on Cora’s shoulder even as her little sister kept sitting on the floor but she pulled herself up and he could see the family resemblance in the tilt of her stubborn chin. Laura was being as strong as she could be, for Cora despite the different last names.

“I am a Spark or a witch if you like. I used my magic to free Derek but somehow I transferred alpha powers to him in the return.”

“Why would you have alpha powers?” Laura asked, crossing her arms as Cora stood up and looked on with mulish intensity that seemed pretty on par with the Hale family.

“I killed an alpha who attacked and turned my friend then decided to try and kill us both. I don’t know how it happened but I killed him. Then when I touched Derek, I bonded with him as an Emissary. To make matters even more fucked up, the alpha I killed was Peter Hale. If Derek cannot complete the Emissary bond with me then I’ll die. I need to break it. Derek is at the Hale house. See ya later,” Stiles turned to walk out of the room because he didn’t want to look at them anymore. He could feel Derek through the bond, even though it was weakened from time spent away from each other. Stiles didn’t want them to figure out that he would do anything to keep the bond with Derek, to see the nascent alpha through this hard time and just let him know that he wasn’t alone.

“Wait!” Laura called out but Stiles just kept walking until he was outside the clinic and getting into his jeep.

He had some books at him but there was no way he was looking into the bond thing today, all he wanted to do was feel sorry for himself, not conducive to anything at all but sometimes as a teenager Stiles thought that he had the right to pout about something that was supposed to be a big deal got screwed up because that’s his life!

Stiles got back to his place and the cruiser was in the driveway so he wasn’t surprised when Stiles slammed through the front door, his dad came into the entryway and raised a brow in question.

“What’s up kiddo?”

“I’m really stupidly pissed that this thing, bonding with an alpha which is supposed to be like losing your virginity just has gotten so screwed up for me because this is fucking Beacon Hills.”

“Language,” his dad admonished.

Stiles rolled his eyes. “When he turned back, I was so excited because I felt the bond happen and I saw everything. It was intense and I wanted it, I wanted it with Derek. And because I saved Scott, killed Peter I’m not going to be able to finalize this bond. I’m going to have to break it or I could die.”

His dad’s brow went up, “Melodrama?”

Stiles shook his head, “Not really. I gotta talk to Deaton about it but I just wanted to come home and eat ice cream.”

His dad nodded, “You want some company?”

“I’m not letting you eat ice cream,” Stiles snorted.

“You’re not stopping me,” Dad responded easily and headed back towards the freezer and pulled out a half gallon of chocolate ice cream that Stiles didn’t even know was in there. “Look, this is what you do when the thing you dream of goes sideways, you commiserate with someone who cares about you with chocolate ice cream, now grab a couple spoons and leave your old man alone about it.”

Stiles sighed and listened to his dad.

Lying in bed later that night, waiting for sleep to come Stiles closed his eyes and imagined something different than his life. He thought about what it would have been like to tell his mom about the spark and about being able to do what he did. He dreamed about knowing Derek when they were younger and coming together as Alpha and Emissary, Witch and Familiar because in the grand scheme of things Derek would have still been able to focus Stiles’s magic with his presence. An Emissary without an alpha, especially one like Stiles, would only become more unstable.

Stiles reached down under the covers, pressing a hand into his stomach and pressed down making a gap between his boxers and his skin, thinking about what else he would love to be with Derek. Maybe it wouldn’t just be about politics and pack dynamics in the bond, maybe it would be everything.

He sighed and pulled his hand away, thinking that if Derek could still feel him through the bond at all, touching himself and imagining some perfect future that was never going to happen would be too embarrassing to live with. For both of them.

Stiles closed his eyes and pressed his hand over his heart and started tapping the rhythm on his chest as he tried to sleep. He didn’t even notice when he fell asleep.

Stiles woke up screaming.

 

 

Derek watched as the two women came towards the building, they smelled familiar but it wasn’t Stiles so he didn’t feel like welcoming them into his shit territory. They were interlopers. They weren’t Stiles. He wanted Stiles to come back. Derek already felt like shit for not telling Stiles that he wanted them to complete the bond but he didn’t want Stiles to die because he chose Derek as an alpha.

“Derek?” the older one called out, she looked familiar but the voice shook him to the core in instant recognition. He flashed back to fighting with her about some boy she liked and how he was never going to be good enough for the pack.  

“Laura?” Derek choked out and she nodded as they stopped in front of the dilapidated house. He stepped into the doorway and stared at the girl who was about Stiles’s age and she looked like a Hale. He didn’t really recognize her though.

“Derek, we didn’t know you were alive. Alan Deaton and Stiles Stilinski found us. Derek, what happened to you?”

Derek flashed his eyes and they stared but they didn’t seem surprised which meant Stiles told them everything, “Where is he?” he asked, rubbing his hands together because they felt like they were numb all of a sudden.

“Who?” Laura asked.

“Stiles, he didn’t come back. He always comes back.”

Laura frowned, “You didn’t want him, he said it would be better if he didn’t come here. What’s going on here Derek?”

Derek shook his head, “You don’t know what it was like to slowly lose yourself to the wolf, to the wild instincts and it was enticing and perfect in the beginning because I didn’t want to remember what happened that day then here comes this smart teenager, someone that didn’t have the good sense to be scared of me as a wolf. A huge fucking wolf and he _heard_ me. For the first time in years, someone heard me and I need him. But I don’t want him to die because I need him.”

Laura stared at him, saying nothing and he shook his head.

“You should go before I kill you too.”

With that Derek walked back inside and walked upstairs on the rickety steps and wandered the halls upstairs ignoring the receding steps and whatever words were passed between siblings. He wondered if any part of it would be weak enough to collapse and take him with it. Maybe if he’d come back and stayed a beta he could have turned omega and wander without getting anyone else killed but as an alpha – he could already feel the desperate need for betas and to build a pack. An alpha without a pack was nothing but a stoked fire licking at the constraints of the rocks set around it, hoping to set fire to some kindling. He didn’t want to burn.

Derek didn’t want Stiles or anyone else to burn either. Derek looked at the window at the far end of the hall and wondered how far he could throw himself out of it. Could he disengage his automatic grace and land in a heap instead? Could he feel the hurt, the burning that his family had felt that day because he couldn’t keep it in his pants?

The thoughts buzzed around his head, making everything thick and fuzzy around the edges. Time passed and hunger gnawed at him, Derek couldn’t remember the last time he ate, maybe when Stiles forced some lunch meat into his hands. His body to used to consuming small mammals that Stiles took it into consideration because that’s what he did.

Stiles considered others and made choices according to their needs, not his own.

Derek watched the sun set and considered jumping out of the window again when he felt and heard him. It was a gut wrenching; blood curdling scream and Derek pressed his palms into his ears but it didn’t stop the sound because it was coming from _inside_ his mind. The pain stroked through him, lighting him up in agony and Derek roared as he ran towards the window and threw himself through it. He landed easily on his feet and took off running towards town, not even considering his clothing or how he looked or the fact that he was about to show his face in a town that believed he was dead. Time blurred as the forest distorted from his speed and suddenly Derek stumbled to a stop in front of the house where he could scent Stiles, see the jeep that smelled like the witch and headed to the front door. Then he heard the screams again, this time from his ears and not his mind.

Derek pounded on the door then just opened it, finding it surprisingly unlocked and easy despite his lack of practice with such mediocre things like privacy and door knobs. He rushed upstairs and into the room where Stiles was lying in his bed, screaming and grabbing at his clothes. The older man, must be his father, was attempting to hold Stiles still but it was barely working. The Sheriff, Derek knew who he was because Stiles never stopped talking about him, looked up in surprise when Derek came in the room.

“What the hell? This is trespassing!” he shouted as Stiles’s movements became even more forced and jerky. Derek walked over and pressed a hand to Stiles’s heaving chest and opened himself to the human’s pain only to be shoved away by its depth. It was more pain than he’d ever felt.

“I’m Derek,” he stuttered after a minute, trying to keep the sheriff from pulling a gun on him if at all possible.

“You’re the reason he’s like this,” the man snarled, not unlike a werewolf, “Get out!”

Derek shook his head and had to raise his voice over Stiles’s whimpers and grunts of pain, “I don’t know what’s happening! I didn’t know anything about Emissaries but I don’t want him to hurt because of me. Maybe I can help.”

The sheriff shook his head but he looked conflicted as he tightened his arms around Stiles. Then he nodded, “I don’t know what to do here. I can’t stand this!”

Derek moved back to the bed and pressed a hand to Stiles’s chest and for the first time in years, opened his skin and heart to pull away Stiles’s pain. He hissed at the intensity of it. Derek looked down at Stiles’s face, his eyes squeezed shut, his mouth pinched in pain. His knuckles were white from the strain Stiles was putting on his dad’s arm. Derek pushed past the pain, trying to seek out the nascent bond if Stiles hadn’t gotten rid of it already.

It was still there.

“Okay, Stiles, I know that this isn’t what you wanted but you don’t deserve this. Tell me what to do,” Derek whispered into the bond that was there but flickering like a television on the fritz. Derek remembered televisions, the big box sets and the rabbit ears from his early childhood. It didn’t last long but he remembered the static and the skipping picture. That’s what the bond was like now.

Derek felt at it like a loose tooth, worried it and started to slip a little power into the bond. He didn’t know what the hell he was doing but Stiles wasn’t screaming anymore so he continued. The flickering in the bonds was starting to fade and the string was beginning to look like a thread instead of a pixelated disaster waiting to be destroyed. Derek fed the line a little more power and the thread took on a red hue, like his alpha eyes and when he felt Stiles fall still underneath his hands. Derek took a deep breath and stumbled back, letting his hand fall away and he slumped to the floor in exhaustion.

“Okay, he’s asleep. Thank you,” the sheriff said and Derek shrugged. He didn’t know what the hell he did and it was his fault Stiles had been screaming in the first place so the thanks didn’t feel like anything he deserved.

“What happened?” Derek whispered.

“He was asleep then he was screaming, how did you know?”

“I felt his pain, I heard him screaming.”

The sheriff nodded, like that was a normal thing in his book but this was Beacon Hills, maybe this was a slow day for the Sheriff. “You came, Stiles didn’t think you would do that. I know that Laura and Cora believed that you weren’t coming back after their visit.”

“Did they come back here?”

“Laura called because she wanted to update Stiles, but no. They didn’t come back here.”

“I may have irreparably bound myself to your son. I didn’t know what I was doing but it was hurting him, I didn’t want him to go but I thought he should go.”

The sheriff nodded, still holding Stiles in his arms, “He never wanted to break the bond, Stiles wasn’t researching like he usually did when he wants something. He’s like a dog with a bone usually but this time, no desire to see it through. Maybe I don’t think this is a good idea for either of you but that wouldn’t matter in the long run, when Stiles sinks his teeth into someone he won’t let them go. I know that’s more than two biting slash dog jokes but I didn’t know how else to say it.”

Derek snorted, the sheriff wasn’t really apologizing but he meant no offense. Derek and the rest of the Hales had been making more than a few dog jokes for most of their lives. Well until…

“I should go, he didn’t invite me here. I need to go,” Derek fumbled as he turned and fled the room and then the house.

 

Stiles woke up the next morning, blinking as he realized his dad was sitting in the bed with him. Dad was leaning against the wall behind the bed with Stiles’s head in his lap. He frowned, “Dad? What’s going on?” he asked.

The sheriff startled a little then groaned, “Well after you went to sleep you started screaming and I couldn’t make it stop. Derek came and did something, it got better and now here we are and I need something for my wrecked back.”

Stiles pushed up away from his father and stared at him then closed his eyes and focused on the bond that had been slowly fading as days went by and it was strong. There was depth and power to it, something he could pull from for magic and give to if Derek was ever hurt. It was a real bond and Derek was on the other side of it.

“He completed the Alpha/Emissary bond!” Stiles exclaimed, stumbling out of the bed and started stripping without even considering his dad didn’t want to see this. Stiles was pushing into clean jeans and tripping into his socks then shirt before he remembered his dad was still sitting on the bed.

“I know you have to go kiddo, this is one of those moments in someone’s life. A witch’s life, and I got to be there when it happened. I know its not the perfect circumstances but he cares. A lot. You’re going to figure it out.”

Stiles nodded and rushed out of the room, slipping into his shoes and grabbing his keys and hoodie on the way out the door. The road out to the Preserve seemed to be twice as long and the path leading out to the Hale house was bumpy, trying to throw Stiles off course.

When he stopped in front of the dismantled house, he felt the jump in the bond. Stiles threw himself out of the jeep and shouted, “Derek Hale, get your ass out here now!”

The alpha stepped out of the house and down the porch steps and Stiles plummeted towards Derek without another thought. Stiles threw his hands up and around Derek’s shoulders and hugged him tight, “You’re not going to regret this Derek. I promise I am going to be the best Emissary you could have ever asked for.”

Derek just nodded, gripped Stiles at the edge of his jaw and his neck pressing his nose into Stiles’s throat on the other side. “What if I could be more? What then?” Derek muttered and Stiles pushed him back and made him repeat it.

“What do you mean?”

Derek pressed his forehead into Stiles’s head, “What if I need you for more someday? After I get my shit together?”

Stiles chuckle-snorted, trying to keep snot from becoming an issue. “Like what?”

“You’re familiar,” Derek said and grinned as Stiles shoved Derek’s shoulder.

“Yeah, every witch needs his familiar.”

“More then? Someday?” Derek whispered and pressed a kiss to the side of Stiles’s head and he hugged Derek as tightly as he could. This was only the beginning after all.


End file.
